Reduced common-mode voltage in Z-Source Inverters

Z-source family has been widespread in photovoltaic (PV) applications. In trasformerless grid-connected PV systems, the common mode voltage (CMV) time variations, cause the leakage current flow. This current flows through the stray capacitance of the PV panels. For a Z-Source Inverter (ZSI), the CMV would have higher high-frequency harmonics, due to the shoot through states within the switching cycles. In this paper, the CMV of a ZSI is analyzed and a simple method is proposed for the harmonic reduction of the CMV in the ZSI. The CMV reduction method is based on changing the switching states. The CMV in reduced method is compared to the CMV in the traditional ZSI in frequency domain by using modulated Fourier transform (MFT) method. The results are verified through the simulation of a 1kw ZSI.